Nalanda University: Plundered by Islamic Invaders and Crippled by Marxists

From Islamic invaders in the 12th century to modern-day mismanagement under Amartya Sen, Nalanda University’s legacy has been twice tarnished, facing controversies and financial improprieties.

• Historical Destruction: Nalanda University, once a renowned institution, was destroyed in the 12th century by Islamic invader Mohammad Bakhtiyar Khilji, resulting in the loss of invaluable manuscripts and the massacre of scholars.
• Modern Revival: In 2010, the Indian government aimed to revive Nalanda University with a significant budget, appointing economist Amartya Sen as the chancellor to lead the project.
• Mismanagement Allegations: Under Sen’s leadership, the revival project faced severe setbacks due to allegations of mismanagement, nepotism, financial impropriety, and slow progress.
• Controversial Appointments: Key positions at the university were filled with Sen’s associates and politicians’ relatives, leading to accusations of cronyism and lack of transparency.

Cultural and Academic Impact: Critics argue that Sen’s administration prioritized personal gains over restoring Nalanda’s historical and cultural significance, undermining its potential as a center of ancient Indian learning.
Nalanda University has the unfortunate distinction of being destroyed twice. In the 12th century, the university faced wanton destruction by the Islamic invader Mohammad Bakhtiyar Khilji.[1] Its towering nine-story library, containing nine million priceless books and manuscripts, was burnt down, and many scholars, including hundreds of Buddhist monks, were slaughtered. This event is regarded as one of the most horrific instances of cultural vandalism in Indian history.

Nalanda suffered a second crippling blow in the 21st century at the hands of a cabal of avaricious Marxists led by the economist Amartya Sen Nalanda suffered a second crippling blow in the 21st century at the hands of a cabal of avaricious Marxists led by the economist Amartya Sen. The Indian government revived the university in 2010 with a budget of more than Rs 2,000 crore (approx. 250 million USD) via the Nalanda University Act. [2] The project was the brainchild of former President APJ Abdul Kalam and was endorsed by the 16-nation East Asia Summit. The government appointed Sen as the chairman of the Nalanda Mentor Group (NMG) and chancellor of the university with an unheard-of basic salary of US$ 80,000 per year. [3] (Despite drawing a fat salary, Sen remains the only Bharat Ratna awardee to avail of Air India’s free travel offer, traveling 21 times between 2015 and 2019.)

The project was a disaster, with the Marxist academics on the university’s governing board accused of mismanagement and f inancial fraud. Progress was so slow that academic courses commenced only in 2014—four years after launch. So, on June 19, 2024, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new campus of the university in Rajgir, Bihar, and commented that “Nalanda’s shutdown pushed India into darkness,” he could have just as easily been commenting on the shenanigans of Sen and his Marxist freeloaders.

Riddled with controversies

• Over the years, the government’s narrative, notably the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), responsible for Nalanda University, suggests that Sen presided over a non-transparent institution with lax fiscal oversight and limited managerial competence. “Leaked internal government communications and reports from the Comptroller & Auditor General have criticized the university for excessive tax free salaries, unauthorized foreign trips, meetings held in luxury accommodations, and opaque appointment practices.” [4]The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) highlighted [Amrtya Sen’s] extravagant spending and controversial appointmentsThe Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) highlighted his extravagant spending and controversial appointments, which were criticized by President Kalam. In a letter dated July 4, 2011, to the Minister of External Affairs, SM Krishna, he wrote:”Having been involved in various academic and administrative proceedings of Nalanda University since August 2007, I believe that the candidates to be selected/appointed to the post of Chancellor and Vice Chancellor should be of extraordinary intellect with academic and management expertise. Both the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor have to personally involve themselves full time in Bihar so that a robust and strong international institution is built.” [5]Kalam was clearly hinting at how Sen was populating Nalanda with his sidekicks and political appointees. Sample this [6] :
• Gopa Sabharwal: An ordinary reader in the Department of Sociology at Lady Sriram College. She had no knowledge of Buddhist studies for which the university was established.
• Upinder Singh, Daman Singh, Amrit Singh: All three are daughters of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and two of them continued their stay in the US while drawing salaries from Nalanda University.
• Anjana Sharma and Nayanjot Lahiri: Both friends of Gopa Sabharwal and Upinder Singh.Also, Kalam’s remark that both the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor work full-time in Bihar alluded to Sen holding meetings of the NMG in cities like New York, Delhi, Tokyo, and Singapore while making infrequent visits to Nalanda itself during his nearly decade-long tenure. Consequently, the university struggled to make significant progress during that period.
  In September 2011, disgusted by Sen’s unabashed nepotism in appointing his Marxist cronies at inflated salaries to key positions at Nalanda, Kalam dissociated himself from the project. [7] The CAG, too, disagreed with how schools were being established. “The university failed to establish schools in time and could not start the construction of university campus work,” the CAG report revealed. [8]In 2021, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy lodged a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation, seeking the registration of a corruption case against Sen. [9] According to Swamy, “The FIR may be registered on the basis of the CAG audit reports for defalcation and reckless misuse of funds, lack of accountability, criminal breach of trust, criminal misappropriation of public funds, and embezzlement of about Rs 3,000 crore of taxpayers’ money.”

Willful sabotage?

It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that Marxists are dead opposed to a revival of Hinduism. Like the Ram Mandir in 2024, Nalanda has the potential to become an iconic destination that contributes to the growth of Indic culture. An experienced economist like Sen would have known that and would have tried everything to kill the project or, at the very least, kill its momentum.

It was obvious that Sen wasn’t keen on launching Nalanda University as a center of ancient Indian learning. How else can one explain the conspicuous absence of the university’s chancellor at the grand re-opening of this esteemed institution, an event occurring eight centuries after Nalanda’s destruction by Islamic invaders? “Some observers believed that the likely poor strength in the classes may have forced Sen to skip the inauguration. But if he claims to be so interested in the post now, one wonders why he did not show this enthusiasm on the inaugural day.” [10]

To Sen, Nalanda University appeared more as an exotic venture. “One might have appreciated it if Amartya had declared that having achieved everything an academician could aspire to, building Nalanda University was his life’s mission, and he intended to settle in Bihar for that purpose. Instead, Amartya seemed to view Nalanda University as an opportunity for frequent trips (at the expense of Indian taxpayers) and eloquent speeches.” [11]

Negationism in Indian history

[Sen] justified the inherent, barbaric violence and iconoclasm of Muslim invaders as “but this nature is in their blood.”
Sen’s appointment was controversial from the get-go. His views on the Islamic invasions of India effectively created an intellectual shield for the oppressors. [12] He justified the inherent, barbaric violence and iconoclasm of Muslim invaders as “but this nature is in their blood.” According to writer Sandeep Balakrishnan, “In the same vein, Amartya Sen’s wisdom-laden thesis denies Hindus the right to avenge this unprovoked violence.”

Sen is part of the group of negationist historians who want to whitewash the crimes of Islamic invaders. This is deeply ironic because they are attempting to create a new narrative that contradicts what Muslim chroniclers and rulers have mentioned in their memoirs. For instance, in the case of Nalanda, the Muslim historian Maulana Minhaj-ud-din, in his Tabakat-i-Nasiri, has left a detailed account of how Mohammed Bhaktiyar Khilji and his fanatic hordes swooped upon the defenseless university and systematically burnt it down to the ground after killing hundreds of Buddhists and Hindu monks. [13] Yet revisionists and negationists like D.N. Jha blame Hindus for this barbaric act.

Minhaj-ud-din writes what the Muslim army of Khilji saw after storming Nalanda in 1197 CE: “The greater number of inhabitants of that place were Brahmans, and the whole of those Brahmans had their heads shaven, and they were all slain. There were a great number of books there, and when all these books came under the observation of the Musalmans, they summoned a number of Hindus that they might give them information respecting the import of those books, but the whole of the Hindus had been killed. On being acquainted (with the contents of the books), it was found that the whole of that fortress and city was a college, and in the Hindu tongue, they call a college Bihar [vihara].”
So, what does Jha say about this episode? In 2004, Jha was the president of the Indian History Congress. In his presidential address, he claimed “Hindu fanatics” had burnt down Nalanda:

“A Tibetan tradition has it that the Kalacuri King Karna (11th century) destroyed many Buddhist temples and monasteries in Magadha, and the Tibetan text Pag Sam Jon Zang refers to the burning of the library of Nalanda by some ‘Hindu fanatics’”.
However, Sarat Chandra Das, the translator and editor of Pag Sam Jon Zang, sets out the account of the destruction of Nalanda as given in this text:
“While a religious sermon was being delivered in the temple that he (Kakuta Sidha, a minister of a king of Magadha) had erected at Nalanda, a few young monks threw washing water at two Tirthika beggars. The beggars, being angry, set fire to the three shrines of dharma ganja, the Buddhist university of Nalanda — that is, Ratna Sagara, Ratna Ranjaka, including the nine-storey building called Ratnadadhi which contained the library of sacred books.” (page 92)
Such are the blatant – and amateurish – ways that Marxist historians lie!

According to Belgian Indologist Koenraad Elst, there was no “long-standing antagonism between Brahmins and Buddhists”, if only because most Buddhist writers were born Brahmins and partook of Brahminical culture. “Buddhist institutions in India flourished under Hindu rule for 16 centuries, otherwise there would have been nothing of them left for the Muslim invaders to destroy. By contrast, when Islam appears on the scene, Buddhism disappears, and not on account of two Tirthika beggars. Cases of polemics between Buddhists and Brahmins may be cited, as also between different Brahminical schools and different Buddhist sects, but they were only the normal exercise of freedom of opinion. They cannot be equated to the Islamic destruction of Buddhism in Central and South Asia.” [14]

Conclusion

Sen’s blatant disregard for the rules is an act of unprecedented audacity, causing the revival project to lose sight of its original noble vision. Following the expiration of his term in July 2015, when the Narendra Modi government showed no inclination to extend his tenure at the university, he resorted to the media, shamelessly claiming “political interference in education.”

However, according to journalist R. Jagannathan, Sen’s arguments have no legs. “One wonders why he thinks his own appointment as chancellor of Nalanda University was not political in nature. There is little doubt that Amartya Sen was the intellectual father of many of Sonia Gandhi’s social spending schemes. And Sen himself kept making political statements in support of “my friend” Manmohan Singh, and, famously, said that he would not like to see Modi as Prime Minister.[15] For so political a person to complain about how politicians are meddling with academic institutions is interesting.”

Sen’s casual dismissal of the genocide of Hindus by Muslim invaders shows that he is a trenchant hater of Hindus and, by extension, Indic culture. He was clearly the wrong person for a project aimed at reviving an iconic Dharmic institution. His appointment as the chancellor – a position which he doggedly held on to well into his eighties – will rank as one of the most egregious decisions of the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi government.
With their crackpot ideology foundering and a Hindu revival in motion, Marxists are desperate to stay relevant. Lies are the only tools they have. It is up to those who seek the truth to deny the Marxists the space to operate on campuses, in government, and in the workplace.

Source: https://stophindudvesha.org/nalanda-university-plundered-by-islamic-invaders-and-crippled-by-marxists/

Citations

[1] https://www.opindia.com/2024/06/pm-modi-inaugurates-new-nalanda-university-campus-in-rajgir-visits-unesco-site-where-bakhtiyar-khilji-burned-down-the-ancient-nalanda/

[2] Nalanda University: APJ Abdul Kalam dissociates himself from Rs 2000 crore Nalanda University project – The Economic Times (indiatimes.com); https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/apj-abdul-kalam-dissociates-himself-from-rs-2000-crore-nalanda-university-project/articleshow/10000086.cms?from=mdr

[3] Crores spent but no glory for Nalanda University | RTI story – India Today; https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/crores-spent-but-no-glory-for-nalanda-university-rti-mea-1782204-2021-03-22

[4] Nalanda University: What went wrong? | Economy & Policy Top Features – Business Standard (business-standard.com); https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/nalanda-university-what-went-wrong-115030400031_1.html

[5] Nalanda University is ailing at childbirth – Indiafacts; https://www.indiafacts.org.in/nalanda-university-ailing-childbirth/

[6] Nalanda University, Amartya Sen and the massive fraud in reconstruction (shwetankspad.com); https://shwetankspad.com/2014/08/26/ancient-nalanda-university-resumes-after-800-year-break-a-massive-fraud-in-the-making/comment-page-1/

[7] Nalanda University: APJ Abdul Kalam dissociates himself from Rs 2000 crore Nalanda University project – The Economic Times (indiatimes.com); https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/apj-abdul-kalam-dissociates-himself-from-rs-2000-crore-nalanda-university-project/articleshow/10000086.cms?from=mdr

[8] How Amartya Sen Nearly Crippled Nalanda University’s Revival (swarajyamag.com); https://swarajyamag.com/politics/how-amartya-sen-nearly-crippled-nalanda-universitys-revival

[9] Swamy asks CBI to file FIR against Amartya Sen – The Hindu; https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/swamy-asks-cbi-to-file-fir-against-amartya-sen/article6938374.ece

[10] Amartya Sen – Victim of Vendetta or a clever plot at Attempted Martyrdom (opindia.com); https://www.opindia.com/2015/02/amartya-sen-victim-of-vendetta-or-a-clever-plot-at-attempted-martyrdom/

[11] Nalanda University, Amartya Sen and the massive fraud in reconstruction (shwetankspad.com); https://shwetankspad.com/2014/08/26/ancient-nalanda-university-resumes-after-800-year-break-a-massive-fraud-in-the-making/comment-page-1/

[12] How Amartya Sen Nearly Crippled Nalanda University’s Revival (swarajyamag.com); https://swarajyamag.com/politics/how-amartya-sen-nearly-crippled-nalanda-universitys-revival

[13] How history was made up at Nalanda; https://hindupost.in/history/how-history-was-made-up-at-nalanda/

[14] Koenraad Elst: An “eminent historian” attacks Arun Shourie; https://koenraadelst.blogspot.com/2014/08/an-eminent-historian-attacks-arun.html

[15] Amartya Sen quits Nalanda University but his sour exit does him no credit; https://www.firstpost.com/india/amartya-sen-quits-nalanda-university-but-his-sour-exit-does-him-no-credit-2110977.html